New member introduction: shrI Subhanu Saxena

[Anand Hudli]

>
>Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:
>
>> Re: vedAdhyayana - the injunction is not that *only* one's own SAkhA
>> should be studied, but normally one makes a beginning with it. So,
this is
>> not a restrictive injuction (niyama-vidhi) or an excluding injunction
>> (parisaMkhyA-vidhi). If it had been otherwise, it would be
inconceivable
>> that SankarAcArya wrote commentaries on the upanishads of all four
Vedas.
>> But there is always room for new precedent, dictated by exceptional
>> circumstances.
>
>There is no excluding injunction for other shAkas, but there's
certainly
>the injunction that one's own shAkha _must_ be studied. It's clear from
>the statement I quoted
>
>svAdhyAyo.adhyetavyaH.
>
>adhyetavyaH leaves no room for doubt about this. And Mahasannidhanam's
>statements also clarify this. Down the line he also says:
>
>"Adhyayana should be done to the extent possible. At least Rudram,
>chamakam, sUktas and other mantras essential for puja etc, should be
>learnt. It is not difficult to spare some time in the morning or
evening
>for learning veda. _It is best if everyone learns one's shAka
>completely_".


 Now, there are some important sUktas or Vedic hymns which are
 chanted by everyone regardless of the shAkhA. For example, the
 GaNapati -atharva-shIrshha upanishhad, which obviously belongs to
 the atharva veda, is chanted during GaNesha pUjA regardless of the
 shAkhA of the person who is performing it. The Shri Rudram is also
 one such hymn, I would say. There is a saying:

 svashAkhopanishhad.h gItA viShNornAma sahasrakam.h |
 rudraM cha paurushhaM sUktaM nityamAvartayet.h budhaH ||

 The wise one should regularly (daily) repeat these: 1) the upanishhad
 of one's own shAkhA, 2) the gItA, 3) the thousand names of Vishnu,
 4) the Shri Rudram, and 5) the purushha sUkta.

 Under this scheme, everyone must recite the Shri Rudram even if it is
 not part of his own shAkhA. There is a Rudra sUkta in the R^ig Veda
 but I suspect when one says Shri Rudram, the hymn from the Yajur Veda
 is what is meant, especially since it has the panchAxarI mantra
 embedded in it.

 Extending the argument, if I may :-), I would say that any of the
 important/popular sUktas/hymns may be learned or chanted
 by anyone regardless of the shAkhA. Some more examples are the
 shrI sUkta, the durgA sUkta, the devI sUkta (of the R^ig Veda), the
 sarasvatI sUkta (also occurring in the R^ig Veda), the saura sUkta,
 the VishNu sUkta, the GaNesha sUkta (of the R^ig Veda, my teacher
 who is from the taittirIya shAkhA uses this one frequently in
 gaNesha pUjA), the aruNa-prashna of the taittirIya shAkha, the
 nArayaNa sUkta of the mahAnArayaNa upanishhad, the pancha rudrIya
 of the same (that begins with "sadyojAtaM prapadyAmi..."), the
 mantrapuShpam.h, and others.

 Anand



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